I'm just home from a splendid hour and a half in the Britannia Panopticon which I've always wanted to go to, hearing Stu Brown and co. playing Raymond Scott tunes, which I've always wanted to hear live. My face aches from grinning at such insanely happy music. The theatre is largely intact if dilapidated, and the acoustic is just fantastic. It's all wood after all: dating from 1857, it's probably the oldest surviving music hall in the world. I found out about it 20 years ago when playing the piano in Tom McGrath's play about Laurel and Hardy - Stan Laurel's father Arthur Jefferson was its manager for a while, and Stan made his first stage appearance there aged 16.

On Thursday as I was leaving the house Timo Alakotila called to remind me that we were going to write something for our concert on 5 July - ah yes ... joining JPP on stage is something else I've always wanted to do. 

And we're going to squeeze in a quick visit to Ardkinglas the night before - you can be in the audience for that select gathering on the evening of the 4thby calling the Estate Office.